During the just-completed Winter Olympics, one figure skating fan on our message boards tried to simplify the scoring system for the non-cognoscenti. His analysis included this:

“Regarding a landed double vs. a fallen triple, here is how it works. A triple toeloop (the easiest triple) is worth 4.3. If you fall, you get -2.1 for Grade of Execution (GOE) and another -1 for the fall. So it gets 1.3. For a triple Axel (worth 8.5), the minimum you could get is 4.5. The maximum you could get for a double Axel is 3.3 (base value) + 1.5 (GOE) for 4.8. So this is still better than the worst triple Axel.”